


Seeing Red

by SKJC



Category: Ted Lasso (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fade to Black, Jealousy, POV switch, Past Keeley/OFC, Post-S1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-18 09:53:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28865094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SKJC/pseuds/SKJC
Summary: Roy isn't a fan of the leading candidate for a job opening at the club.
Relationships: Keeley Jones/Roy Kent
Comments: 10
Kudos: 40





	Seeing Red

**Author's Note:**

> I know yesterday I just said I was busy, but I swear I already had this almost entirely finished and I might need these concepts to be canon for future chapters of my other fic, lol. ;)

“Keep your heads up!” Roy shouted at the squad of Richmond’s first youth academy players as they did drills in the crisp evening air, hopping over sets of short hurdles in between connecting passes in squares among their groups. “Your boots are not that fucking interesting!”

He still wasn’t sure how he ended up with this job. Sinking a ton of money into expansion projects right on the tail of being relegated, when they’d barely had a budget to speak of for years, was one of the stranger things he’d ever seen a club do in his career. But, somehow, a collective decision had occurred over the previous summer that the club needed to start up an academy program. 

Now, there was another set of facilities being built opposite the training pitch, half-done now with winter nearly over, and twenty year-eight students coming around four afternoons a week when their schools let out. They had needed a coach, and he was fairly certain Keeley had volunteered him, though she still denied it, swearing it had been all Ted’s idea.

Either way, it wasn’t what he thought he’d be doing with his career in retirement, and he was very aware of the fact that he’d have to start using that word soon whether he’d gotten used to it yet or not. The fucked up knee was about as healed as it would ever be, and while he was technically capable of playing again, he’d already acknowledged in his heart that he didn’t really want to grind his body into the dirt for another year or two until something else broke down. 

Besides, the kids weren’t all _that_ bad. Some days he envied them their energy and resilience. A few of them had real potential and he pushed them hard because of it. They fought him on it but worked even harder, and it gave him a laugh - he’d been the same kind of stubborn little asshole at their age. 

What he didn’t envy them was going home to chores and homework. Fuck being thirteen again _,_ he thought, when he had the love of his life waiting for him upstairs and several bottles of good whiskey at home. 

He glanced at his phone to check how late it had gotten. There was a timetable he had to follow so that the little bastards could get off home on time. Two short, sharp blasts of his whistle got their attention. 

“Let’s call it a night, lads! I’m not hearing it from your mum if you’re late!” 

A chorus of “yes, Coach!” echoed back, and they set about picking up the equipment before heading off towards the locker room, pushing and shoving at each other all the way. 

After all the gear was stored away, the lights were turned off, and all the kids were gone, he checked his phone again to see if Keeley was done for the day. There weren’t any messages or notifications yet, so he typed one out.

_Done here, you?_

The response dots came up almost immediately. 

_Just finishing up this last interview! Meet you downstairs?_

Roy sent back a thumbs-up emoji and went to get the rest of his things from the office. 

They were interviewing potential coaches and staff for a women’s team, another crazy expansion project idea that he didn’t comprehend the purpose of. But, Keeley was one hell of a people person, so it didn’t surprise him that Ms. Welton had wanted her involved, especially with her network of connections all over the place. 

The place was pretty empty while he waited in the lobby near the doors. Nobody was still around except for Will, down the hall in the kit room, probably finishing up the laundry for the day. Not even Rojas hung around the gym this late, not this deep into the season when the match schedule still had no end in sight and everyone struggled to balance training and rest to stave off injuries. 

Keeley came down the stairs before he could get too wrapped up in thinking about what his days would look like if he were still playing, on the tail end of a conversation with a tall, short-haired woman who reminded him of somebody, although he couldn’t quite tell who at first glance.

Whoever she was, she gave him a look before turning to Keeley. “Oh my god, is _Roy Kent_ the boyfriend you’ve been on about? I’m not sure if that means you’ve graduated from the WAG life entirely or just evolved into your final form, but well done.”

Roy scowled at her incredulous tone, even as he immediately recognized her voice. Of course she was familiar; she used to captain the Arsenal women’s side, but he’d seen her mostly in press for the Lionesses. They’d probably met a handful of times at various functions that Roy hadn’t wanted to attend in the first place, back in the day when he was still getting national team call-ups himself. 

“Ronnie Abbott?” It was half question, half statement. “How are the lady bloody Gunners getting by without you?”

She smirked and held out her hand for a handshake, which he took, partly as a reflex and partly because Keeley seemed as though she was about to chastise him otherwise.

“They just thrashed Chelsea all about last weekend, so I wager they’re all right, yeah?”

Roy opened his mouth to say something back that would definitely be rude, but Keeley took his arm and leaned up to drop a quick kiss on his lips before he could, and pulled him lightly in the direction of the carpark instead.

“Oh, you two already know each other?” She looked back and forth between them as they walked.

“Know of each other, more like.” Ronnie snorted. “It’d be hard not to have at least heard of Roy sodding Kent if you’ve been anywhere near English footy in the last couple decades.” 

“Suppose it is a pretty small world when you think of it,” Keeley said, glancing in his direction. 

“I’d have just shown up for matches if all the social bullshit was optional,” he said dryly, and stopped to unlock the car. 

“Christ, if only, yeah?” Ronnie pulled a set of keys out of her jacket and an unlock chirp sounded from one of the few other vehicles left in the lot, then she pulled Keeley into a hug. “Cheers, luv, Kellie's waiting on me, but I’ll let you know about the job?” 

Roy got into the car and pulled the door shut before he could hear whatever Keeley said in return, bristling at the display of familiarity. He gave a cursory nod through the windshield in the taller woman’s direction as she walked away and Keeley got in beside him. 

“Is something wrong?” She asked, after he pulled out of the carpark without saying anything. 

“No, nothing,” he replied, trying not to let his face twist into a frown or allow his teeth to clench. “You seemed to know Abbot pretty well.”

“Veronica? Oh, I met her ages ago.” Keeley paused in thought for a moment, and Roy wasn’t sure he’d ever heard anyone call Abbott by her full first name so casually. In fact, he was fairly certain he’d seen a video where she refused to talk to the press at all after they did, and he was definitely failing now at preventing his jaw from twitching.

“I think it was maybe seven or eight years, now?” Keeley continued, seemingly oblivious, although he knew better than that by now. “She asked my ex to introduce us and I thought she was his new girlfriend coming around to try to make me jealous, it was quite funny actually!”

Whatever was funny about that, it didn’t make much sense to him, nor did it really explain how well they seemed to know each other. Keeley gave him another long glance, then changed the subject to talk about the new restaurant she and Rebecca had gone to over their lunch hour. That was fine - he’d really rather hear about Ethopian food.

***

Keeley chose not to comment on it when Roy banged around in the kitchen more loudly than normal while he cooked dinner. Instead, she just kissed him on the cheek and went upstairs to take off her makeup and have a shower. 

She had a few guesses as to what he was upset about, but it wasn’t as though badgering him about it was going to make any difference until he was ready to talk. She loved him dearly, but he was a predictable man, and when he got himself into a strop, and he had to decide on his own to talk about it. So, she talked enough for both of them throughout the evening, asking about his training with the academy kids and telling him all about her ideas for promotional content for Richmond’s social media. 

“Maybe the club could publish a sexy calendar of the starting eleven,” she said as they lounged in bed later. She had her laptop open, looking at the photo feed of a photographer she knew who’d probably be willing to do a project like that. “Most of the lads love to take their shirts off anyway. Dani’s like a toddler once you’ve given him a drink, and Richard posts mirror selfies in his gym knickers on Insta all the time...”

“And put who on the last month, Ted?” 

“I was thinking all the coaches, actually.” She giggled, waggling her eyebrows at him suggestively, even though really they’d probably just put them in suits. She didn’t want to imagine Ted - or Beard, for that matter - in a skimpy swimming costume.

“Including your _friend_ who wants to coach the new lady Greyhounds?” He asked, sarcastically, and she was almost relieved that he finally brought it up.

“We could do a ladies’ version as well next year, equal opportunity and all that,” she replied, matter-of-fact, and set her computer aside on the nightstand to look at him instead. “You’ll have to get on with Veronica if she takes the job. Why don’t you like her?”

He heaved a huge sigh and closed the book he was reading. “She called you a WAG and she bled Gunner red her whole career, do I need any other reasons not to like her?”

“Well, you’re both retired so I think you can let the old club rivalry go,” Keeley replied dryly. It was always tiresome to listen to guys go on about who they hated over shirt colors and why it was justified because of something that happened fifty years ago. “And she was joking, Roy, it was funny.”

“It was too familiar,” he grumbled, and all but tossed the book aside. 

“Are you jealous?” 

“Should I be?”

Keeley rolled her eyes and cuddled up to his side to attempt to remove the frown from his face. “No, you shouldn’t. We went out for six months like a million years ago, and she dumped me for another footballer. We stayed friends and I was a bridesmaid at their wedding. No harm done.” 

Roy’s eyebrows went practically to his hairline at that, and she had to suppress a giggle. 

“You already knew this about me,” she reminded him, and tangled her fingers into the hemline of his shirt. “And we both have a lot of exes.” 

“Yeah, I know.” Roy shook his head and put his arm around her, drawing her closer, and kissed the top of her head with another little sigh. “I’m being an idiot. Right?” 

“I love you,” Keeley said instead of answering, and smiled when she felt some of the tension leave his body. He got inside his own head in such ridiculous ways, her grumpy teddy bear of a man, but it was part of what made him hers and she wouldn’t have him any other way. 

His fingers cupped her cheek and gently angled her face so he could kiss her. “Love you too,” he replied, pressing their foreheads lightly together. “Sorry I’m an idiot.”

“You could make it up to me…” She shifted her leg over his hips and kissed him again, deeper this time, a reminder that he was the only person she wanted in her bed. “Maybe even a few times.”

She laughed and squealed in surprise when he rolled her onto her back and trailed kisses down her neck. His hands came up under her shirt, warm against her bare skin as he pushed it up over her head, and she wriggled out of it to help him along.

“A few times? Ambitious,” Roy remarked, running his hands up her body again as he gazed appreciatively, and she giggled.

“I have faith in your creativity, love.”

**Author's Note:**

> Come scream with me about this show on [Tumblr](http://skjc-writes.tumblr.com) or the [unofficial Ted Lasso Discord](https://discord.gg/5jDYgUGSbS)!


End file.
